Sunday, May 22, 2011

Here's a seiyuu "best eleven" Japan soccer side, as selected by the bassist for the rock group Unison Square Garden:

Yuuki Aoi

Hanazawa Kana

Yukana

Koshimizu Ami

Kitamura Eri

Sawashiro Miyuki
(central midfielder)

Saitou Chiwa

Mitsuishi Kotono

Hayami Saori

Fujita Saki

Takagaki Ayahi (keeper)

coach: Koyama Rikiya

So that's Yuuki Aoi and Hanazawa Kana up front doing the scoring. Yukana is right behind them in the middle, and Koshimizu Ami and Kitamura Eri are on the wings, with Sawashiro Miyuki orchestrating the whole thing. In the back line, doing the defending, are Saitou Chiwa, Mitsuishi Kotono, Hayami Saori, and Fujita Saki. And Takagaki Ayahi is in goal.

Of course I like this, since eight of the eleven "players" are among my favorite seiyuus, too: Ao-chan, Kana-chan, Yukana, Amisuke, Miyukichi, Chiwa, Hayamin, and Ayahime.

Unison Square Garden's bassist Tabuchi Tomoya and guitarist/vocalist Saitou Kousuke were appearing on the Myu-Comi Plus radio show on All-Night Nippon on May 10. After the show, Tabuchi sketched out his side on the back of his radio script:

The radio show concentrates on music and manga. Unison Square Garden has done anime themes for Soul Eater and the current Tiger and Bunny.

My interest in anime is unfortunately recent, so that the one name I didn't recognize is Mitsuishi Kotono, who was Sailor Moon.

Here's a photo from the radio show's blog, showing Tabuchi (left) and Saitou, with the show's host, Yoshida Hisanori, in the center:

The only real objection I have to his selections is that I would try to include the highly athletic Hikasa Youko and Nazuka Kaori somewhere in the side. Lol. Ao-chan is not athletic at all, but she and Kana-chan made good strikers, as far as I'm concerned. Two voices that make an impression.

For those unused to soccer terminology, "4-4-2" refers to placing 4 people in the defensive back line, 4 ahead of them in midfield, and 2 up front as scoring forwards.

13
comments:

Yeah, Hiyocchi should be on the lineup. She used to play baseball in high school, after all. And Aki-chan played basketball, so she should have some athletic skills too. In addition, if they put Kobayashi Yuu on the list, she would definitely break the opposite team's defense lines XD

@anonymous -- Thanks for the suggestion. He's not one of my favorites, because he hasn't been in many shows I have followed, but I'll look at him more. I've liked him as Touma in the episodes of Index and Railgun I've seen, but I wasn't a big fan of Souma in Shugo Chara.

Voice-wise (that is, if voices could play football), choosing Ao-chan with Kana-tan as the attacking pair is splendid. We, in Europe have a philosophy of having two attackers who complete themselves, for instance the Brits play a tall, phisical number 9, and a short, technical number 10. If you saw Yutori-chan, you'll understand, why Aoi-Kana would be "the most complete" pairing, equal if not supperior to the likes of Salas-Zamorano, Rebrov-Shevchenka, or Sheringham-Shearer.

I'd have an opinion about defence, which in to my mind should compose of Kobayashi Yuu as libero and Sawashiro Miyuki in the centre and Hirano Aya and Ueda Kana as the full backs, but it would take too much time explaining the nuances of Milan-style Catenaccio.

After calming myself, I have to say, that... no, I'm not calm yet. Can you give me your phone number so I could yell at you in Italian? Just kidding. But really, you can't advance Sawashiro more, she would need to stay back, as Yukana is already playing as a trequartista, and even in 4-3-3 There would be a hole, since Yukana would play as the striker, and Aoi-Kana would play her supporting wings, which naturally brings Ami and Eri further to the front. But if, for instance, you would drop Aoi-Kana further to the back, leave Yukana at the sole number 9 to a 4-5-1, then of course, the central midfield could swap possisions according to the play, which could bring Sawashiro really far. Although, I think now that Aoi should be the no.9, with Sawashiro directly supporting her, it would be good for them mentally. BTW. watch the brilliant football of Serie A, instead that thoughtless circus from Spain.

I did base my idea on Barcelona with the 4-3-3 formation. I mainly watch the English premier league and Champions league and I don't have anything against any leagues in the world.

I still like the idea of Sawashiro further forward pulling the strings and to have the discipline to track back to defend. She could interchange with Koshimizu so that Ami can be the defensive midfielder.

This is all for harmless fun but I wouldn't mind thinking of the opposition side.

@Divine -- "Recent" means the fall of 2004. I've watched some earlier shows, but not all the classics. And of course I miss things, especially by only watching shows in genres I enjoy -- which excludes many kinds of "shounen" anime.

Hashihime

The "Hashihime" or "Bridge Princesses," are characters in the novel The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari 源氏物語）. They are daughters of a disgraced prince, living alone with him in a small house at Uji, outside Kyoto. They are important characters in the last ten chapters of the novel.

The Genji can be considered the first real novel in the history of the world. It was written around 1000 AD by a Japanese court lady known as Lady Murasaki, or Murasaki Shikibu.

I think contemporary Japanese literature, including anime and manga, continues to preserve aspects of the Genji, among them sensitive psychological observation, a general passion for romance, and romantic interest in young girls. The main hero of the thousand-page novel, Prince Genji, had a number of present and former girlfriends living in his palace, and basically abducted his principal wife Murasaki when she was ten, marrying her when she was around 15.

notes

-- all Japanese names are written in Japanese order: surname first, given name second-- I claim no copyright on anything in this blog, unless otherwise stated